It is common to provide a sample of an image to a customer for approval prior to printing a large number of copies of the image using a high volume output device such as a printing press. The printed sample image is known as a “proof,” which is used to ensure that the customer is satisfied with, among other things, the content and color of the image. Proofs are not printed on high volume output devices because high volume output devices are expensive to set up and not cost effective to print proofs. Accordingly, it has become a practice in the printing industry to use digital color printers, also called “proofers,” to print proofs since they are cost effective and may be color adjusted and confirmed. Proofers render color prints of images that have been encoded in the form of digital data, which includes code values indicating the colors to be printed. When the proofer generates a printed output of an image, it is intended that the image rendered on the printed output will exhibit the exact colors that will ultimately be rendered by the high volume output device.
Prior to printing, a calibration device, such as a spectrophotometer, may be used to measure the colors of color patches in a test image, each color patch in the test image having an associated “color target” value. The measured color of each color patch is converted into a color code value and then compared against the original “color target” value associated with that patch. This is used to verify that the proofer is correctly rendering the digital information as the correct intended colors.
Color management adjustments are used to modify the operation of the proofer so that the image printed by the proofer will have the same appearance as that printed by the high volume output device. A first step in color management is to determine how the high volume output device converts color code values into printed colors. This determining step is known as “characterization” of the high volume printing device. A second step is to similarly determine how the proofer device converts color code values into printed colors. This is known as “characterization” of the proofer device. The proofer characterization generally depends on the specific proofer, the ink, and the media used on that particular proofer. In both of these cases, the result of such a characterization step is known as a “color profile.” In order to make the proof, one needs to use both the proofer color profile and the color profile of the high volume printing device, together with a number of color settings, in order to achieve the desired match. Achieving the correct color output requires that a specific combination of profile(s), color settings, printer, ink, and media all be used in combination.
With the advent of information networking as a basis of communication in the field of industrial printing, the need to perform remote proofing over networks has increased. The need for the color profile and other such information for a proof printer, while already complex in the case of a single printer and its computer controller, becomes much more demanding and subject to error in the case of remote proofing. The situation is rendered even more complex when proofing printers are placed on a network comprising a plurality of proof printers and a plurality of master proofing controllers. Complexities involved in remote proofing include the proofer-specific behavior and the management thereof over distance and through security mechanisms and arrangements, such as information network firewalls.
Consequently, there is a need for a method and system that allows one or more master proofing controllers to conduct remote proofing over an information network with one or more remote proof printers that are capable of one or more printer settings, wherein the one or more master proofing controllers may obtain verification that the one or more remote proof printers are rendering correct colors.